System fell apart - can't rebuild

After a recent update everything fell apart, although it may be due to something else that i'm missing. Connect (wired ethernet) Connect Amp, 3 x Play 1 and 2 x Play 3 were all working wonderfully for the last couple of years. Really stable. This week after an update all the rooms apart from the one with the Connect vanished. I have turned everything off. factory reset on the Connect (wired Ethernet) and this now works. I turn on the Play 1 and factory reset. Add it back in, go through the steps as expected, get the Chime tone, but the last step of the wizard fails to complete and times out with the "product not found" error. I really don`t understand what is going on. Can anyone help please?

Not clear in the second (paulortman) of the two posts above, but to help solve the issues... were the Sonos Speakers running on your routers WiFi or were they running on SonosNet, with at least one device cabled to the LAN?

I had major problems yesterday which were probably related to the update.

My Play1s were only streaming after I hit the physical Play button on one of the speakers, but neither my Spotify app or Sonos app could see them. In fact the Sonos app couldn't find the system at all even after resetting the wifi.

The issue probably had its roots in the fact that I'd updated my iOS and Android apps but nothing else. Ended up carrying out update on the Sonos Desktop Controller then rebooting router and restarting iPhone.

One of the ways to perhaps go about solving the situation in the cases above is to take a little bit of time to do the following...

Firstly, switch off all the LAN network devices (cabled and WiFi), including the router itself.

Cable just the one Sonos device to the router.
Switch on the router and let it settle.
Switch on the cabled Sonos device and also let it settle.

Switch on the Sonos Controller device and ensure it is connected over the same router WiFi, or ethernet connection, and not linked to any WiFi repeater of extender that has accidentally been left switched on. Make sure it is also not attached to any of the routers other 'guest' WiFi signals either. Keep everything on the same network, WiFi SSID and subnet.

Open the Sonos App and you should (hopefully) see your existing Sonos system with just the one cabled device attached, or you may be prompted to connect to the 'existing' Sonos system. Whatever you do though, do NOT try to create a brand new Sonos Network at this point.

If things continue to fail at this early stage, it maybe because the chosen plugged in Sonos device, or your router, is faulty for some reason.

Do not hard-reset the Sonos device at this stage and do NOT try to create a new Sonos network in either 'Boost' or 'Standard' Setup Mode within the App. Instead power down the Sonos device and just set it aside.

Try the same setup process again, by choosing another Sonos speaker to cable to the router. You should hopefully find one device that 'shows/appears' in your Sonos App. This appearance means you now have the beginnings of your old Sonos network back up and running. You will possibly see your previously installed music services in the App, such as Spotify, Google, Deezer or Apple Music, for example ...and any previously saved 'playlists' or 'favorites' in the 'My Sonos' tab.

The next step then, depends on how your remaining Sonos devices were originally connected to the network, or what may have happened to take them offline. Some people in this situation have been known to reset their router and change their router passwords, SSID or settings etc, in an effort to try to fix their situation. So here is perhaps the next best steps to take.

Pick the nearest next Sonos device and switch it on, wait for it to boot up and settle and hopefully it will automatically re-appear in the Sonos App. If it doesn’t then just power it off and set it aside... do the same for all remaining speakers, one at a time and get as many as you can to re-appear in your Sonos App. These devices will start to work for you if you were either previously running the system on SonosNet and have not changed any of your router settings.

If any of these speakers don’t appear for any reason, then you could next try cableing them too to your Router, one at a time, to see if they need updating and if that fails, as a very last resort you can then try hard-resetting them and adding them back to your existing Sonos System.

Perhaps most importantly in this situation, is to NOT create any new 'additional' Sonos 'Boost' or 'Standard' Mode network setups using the Sonos App, nor to use the hard-reset procedure on any Sonos device except as a very last resort.

Even then, before doing any hard-reset procedure to a Sonos device, you would ideally want to have at least one Sonos device from your old setup first working on SonosNet and appearing in the Sonos app so that you don’t lose any previously installed services, or saved playlists etc.

Once everything is back up and running ... if you decide you want to run everything on the routers WiFi signal and not on SonosNet, then before disconnecting the one cabled Sonos device you need to go to 'Settings/Advanced Settings/Wireless Setup' in the Sonos App and ensure you go through the setup there to make sure the correct WiFi credentials for the router are in place.

If you decide however to leave one device cabled to the router and to continue to run things on SonosNet, it is also worth going to the same 'Wireless Setup' area in the App Settings and ensuring the WiFi credentials are reset/removed from the App, as these credentials are usually not required when running things on SonosNet.

Once you have things sorted, then switch on all your remaining non-Sonos network devices and to also help prevent future problems with your Sonos System, you can do the (recommended) optional thing of adding all your Sonos devices IP addresses to the DHCP Reservation Table in your Router Setup pages... but that’s maybe a discussion for another day, but is widely discussed in other threads on this forum if you fancy going that extra step.

If a Sonos device is still not working either over WiFi or SonosNet, after it has been cabled to the router and updated ..and eventually hard-reset too (only as a very last resort), then perhaps wire it back to the router and submit a diagnostic report to Sonos to see if there is a hardware fault.

Obviously you can call Sonos on tel: (+1) 800-680-2345 in the U.S. and here (below) is also the link that explains the LED lights, flashing amber etc. Presumably though that is only for one of your Sonos devices and doesn’t prevent you restoring your system with all the remaining products.

Then maybe submit your diagnostic when you have the 'offending' device cabled to your router and post your diagnostic reference here, so that the staff can take a look at what’s going on... they will need the diagnostic reference in any event, even if you go onto call them.

Connection problems which appear suddenly are often caused by network problems, not Sonos problems. The typical cause is duplicate IP addresses. These often show up after an update or power outage because a reboot requires the device to request a new IP, and the router, having lost track of current IP assignments, issues a new IP that is in use by another device. To cure this, do the following:

Reboot/power cycle your devices in the following order (the order is specific for a reason!!):

Allow each device to come back up before proceeding to the next. Note that you can permanently prevent duplicate IP addresses by assigning an IP to each device's MAC address in the router setup. See your router manual for details.

Sonos is not responding to any reboots or power up/downs in any order.

Hi paulortman,

I see that you've submitted a few diagnostic reports recently. Are you able to connect to your Sonos system again? There is some wireless interference showing up in your reports, which could explain some of the issues you're having. Wireless interference can be reduced by changing the wireless channel your Sonos system is using.

Generally, our support team doesn't give up on issues, and if they can't be solved in the first call your ticket should be escalated to our higher tiers of support. Can you send me a direct message with your case number? I'll review it and see what steps to take next.

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Hello, I have tried to change channels and that doesn't help the total loss of system and controller's inability to see only 3 speakers out of 17. I have even shut down the wireless side from router and run off boost setup. The system is so unstable since the upgrades. Left and right drop out, total loss of rooms and having to hard boot every speaker each time is getting so damn old.

Hello, I have tried to change channels and that doesn't help the total loss of system and controller's inability to see only 3 speakers out of 17. I have even shut down the wireless side from router and run off boost setup. The system is so unstable since the upgrades. Left and right drop out, total loss of rooms and having to hard boot every speaker each time is getting so damn old.

Understood. In your last diagnostic report all of your Sonos units show up, which means that they are able to communicate with each other. Though it looks like the Paul's Room speakers in particular aren't communicating well with your BOOST. Are there any third party electronics, such as cordless phone bases, near those speakers? It may help to move any such devices away from your speakers to reduce interference.

There may be a different reason explaining why your controller only sees a couple speakers. Do you have any wireless extenders in your home or are you connecting your controllers to the wireless from only your router? If so, it may help to reboot them and your main router. Also, if your controller is connecting through a 5 ghz network, try the 2.4 ghz one instead and see if there's a difference.

In any case it may help to reboot your controller. Please submit a new diagnostic report and reply with the confirmation number if these steps don't help.

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With 17 speakers I’d bet a dollar to a donut you have IP Address conflicts or something else related to your network. If Sonos app related typically deleting it and reinstalling will correct any codecs than may have been corrupted via the first download/update process.

I don’t know how long you’ve had your system; but it’s highly unlikely that 13 out of 17 speakers would bite the dust all at once. Something has definitely changed in your network.

These questions may have been covered before but I’ll ask them again…

_Have you checked your routers firmware to make sure it’s up to date?

_Have you recently introduced any switches or AP’s to your network?

_If your Sonos App is PC based have there been any new updates to the OS and or changes to the PC firewall or 3rd party anti-virus firewall which could be blocking communication?

Hello, I have tried to change channels and that doesn't help the total loss of system and controller's inability to see only 3 speakers out of 17. I have even shut down the wireless side from router and run off boost setup. The system is so unstable since the upgrades. Left and right drop out, total loss of rooms and having to hard boot every speaker each time is getting so damn old.

Hi paulortman

With 17 speakers I’d bet a dollar to a donut you have IP Address conflicts or something else related to your network. If Sonos app related typically deleting it and reinstalling will correct any codecs than may have been corrupted via the first download/update process.

I don’t know how long you’ve had your system; but it’s highly unlikely that 13 out of 17 speakers would bite the dust all at once. Something has definitely changed in your network.

Firstly, thanks for all the useful advice! And whilst I didnt follow all of it, it almost saved me from making things worse of just wasting my time. My system is working again, which is the main thing. In the end this is what I did. Checked that my DHCP range was not exhausted, it wasn't. Shutting down the router seemed irrelevant, as it is on a different sub net. I did reboot the wireless router and test. I did shut down all t:he Sonos systems. A complete network shutdown was not realistic, but I did tidy it up a bit. I realized that I had a 'Spare" Play:1 that has not been connected for a few months. I cabled it and powered up. It appeared immediately. And needed updated. Which I did. I powered up each of the Plays in turn (WiFi only). Added them to the app. They did not blink green, but i ignored that fact.They blinked orange, and did not generate a tone when added, but I was able to add each device back like this, and pair them correctly. I then un cabled the connect and added it. and finally the connect:amp. Only one play:1 could not be added, so this one I factory reset and it went back fine.

Thanks AjTreck1 for the info re the About My Sonos - I can see that each device shows WM=0 .. which is good. But now I have a further two questions :-)
Q1) What does "Associated ZP: 192.168.10.106" tell me ? This is the "Spare Play:1" that i used to start the re installation - Its still running but I would rather not have it cabled sitting on my desk - and its in a room with its own speakers. Can I disconnect it .. or will my system fall apart if I do that?
Q2) What is "OTP: 1.1.1(1-17-3-2.1)" telling me ?

Thanks once again to all who helped me through this difficult time :-)
Ian

Thanks AjTreck1 for the info re the About My Sonos - I can see that each device shows WM=0 .. which is good. But now I have a further two questions :-)Q1) What does "Associated ZP: 192.168.10.106" tell me ? This is the "Spare Play:1" that i used to start the re installation - Its still running but I would rather not have it cabled sitting on my desk - and its in a room with its own speakers. Can I disconnect it .. or will my system fall apart if I do that?Q2) What is "OTP: 1.1.1(1-17-3-2.1)" telling me ?

To your questions...FYI, I gleamed these answers from other posts in the forum. I'll provide the links below each

The Associated ZP is the speaker (or Boost) that the Sonos Controller communicates with. Unplug the Play 1 currently identified and another will take it's place. however, in your case doing so would require that you either change your setup to Wi-Fi (not recommended) or select another speaker as Boost. To allow you greater flexibility and remove the speaker from your desk I suggest you consider investing in the $99 (USD) Sonos dedicated Boost. It also has a stronger signal than a Play 1 for better coverage.

Thanks AjTreck1 for the info re the About My Sonos - I can see that each device shows WM=0 .. which is good. But now I have a further two questions :-)Q1) What does "Associated ZP: 192.168.10.106" tell me ? This is the "Spare Play:1" that i used to start the re installation - Its still running but I would rather not have it cabled sitting on my desk - and its in a room with its own speakers. Can I disconnect it .. or will my system fall apart if I do that?Q2) What is "OTP: 1.1.1(1-17-3-2.1)" telling me ?

Hi IanWa

Glad you were able to get your Sonos sorted Kudo's To your questions here's the short answer...since the my first ones mysteriously disappeared. That's been happening a lot lately

Anyway...

The Associated ZP is the speaker that the Sonos controller selects to communicate with. In a Boost setup it will be the speaker or dedicated Sonos Boost that is wired to create the Boost mode. In Wi-Fi mode removing one speaker upon the next boot the Sonos Controller will just select another speaker. In your case in order to maintain Boost mode you'll have to wire another speaker or for flexibility invest in the Sonos dedicated Boost component ($99 USD).

OTP stands for One Time Programmable. It's an outdated term from what I can discern was originally associated with the Gen 1_Play 5. Advice is to ignore it.